All Men's Dead - set and stills

NFTS All Men's Dead Graduation Film

All Men's Dead is a NFTS graduation film, directed by David Simpson, that i designed and worked on at the beginning of the summer 2011.

http://amdfilm.blogspot.com/

The film is based on the true story of the night of 15th October 1940 when a 500lb delayed action bomb hit BBC Broadcasting House during the blitz.

For me as the Production designer, we needed to construct a set here at the school, which we could manipulate to be the 5th floor, 6th floor and basement of the Broadcasting House. Also enabling us to deconstruct the space when the bomb landed on the 5th floor and when it finally exploded!!

We used various references and research from achieves, museums and even visiting the Broadcasting House. The challenge was putting this research together to become a workable set. We did various ideas via sketches and 3D modelling, but the final design although big in NFTS terms, was useable and created the idea of 1940's institutional building.

The next few blogs i will add photos of references, research and the progress of the set build to the film shoot....

Monkey See!! Monkey Do!!

So its been 2 weeks since Monkey Mo was in his Jungle, It was a good day, a relaxed day in the jungle, even when the 1st AD left early with a so-called swollen ankle?
But overall i think the director, presenter Rob Adcock and even Monkey Mo were impressed what we constructed in 2 days prior. It was fun to do something different compared to my fiction film set build at the beginning of the summer. Totally differs creating a realistic set based in 1940's and based on the BBC Broadcasting House.

Take a look at the jungle below.....

From a green screen Jungle:


To a fun packed Monkey's Jungle:

Monkey Business!!

Carrying on the monkey theme, i am in pre-production for a TV graduation project i am doing here at the NFTS, working with director Karen Heath. As part of her graduation film, we our following Mo the monkey on his 'Big Olympic Adventure'. As we follow him in and around London, feeding back on the big build towards the London 2012 Olympic games!! The show is aimed at children aged 8-11 years with Mo the monkey a puppet and a presenter. As Mo goes around London he takes with him his base camp a tent like tardis, where we enter and escape into a exotic jungle where Mo lives and recaps on the adventures his been on. The jungle is where i come in, which i am designing and planning with Karen. I have already visualised the jungle with Karen, a small set which has 2 areas, a sitting area with Mo's tyre swing!! and a working area!! Check out my visual below.... Having the opportunity to use a room at the NFTS, was great, so from that we recce the room and discuss construction, health and safety etc....then i made a scaled model to see what we can do with the confinements of the space. From the model and visual, i am now sourcing the trees and foliage and props, ready for the 1 day shoot on the 18th September, i will keep you updated on my Jungle search over the next couple weeks....

Talking about Mystics and monkeys, went to watch The Rise of the Planet of the Apes directed by Rupert Wyatt. I found it rather enjoyable film to watch and was taking in by the lead character Ceasar (Andy Serkis) and how you come very attached to him and follow his journey from a baby to he's uprising!! I recommend watching it, especially me saying that as i've been very disappointed with hollywood blockbusters of late i.e. me fallen asleep in Transformers 3, even at the Imax!! So good to have a prequel that is actual watchable.

For design purposes, the dressing and locations were contemporary, science labs look the same as in million other films!!

'The Dark Crystal' - Mystics - UrRu Valley

For my characters for 'The Dark Crystal' i kept close to the script and to Henson's original ideas. Below is the Mystic characters who live in the UrRu Valley, a utopia, a hidden valley where they live in peace and harmony.

Below - Mystic Character Design

Below - Visual Reference's

Below - Concept drawing for UrRu Valley

The Dark Crystal!!

'The Dark Crystal' was my choice for the science fiction/fantasy design project from last year, where we had to chose a script or book and visualise and design the world and create a scaled techinal drawings and model for a specific scene in the story. Using primary and secondary research to create the world of The Dark Crystal which Jim Henson originally visioned back in the 1982 with the original fantasy film, acted my puppets!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Crystal

Although i kept closely to the script and Jim Henson's original vision, i brought my own personal aspects to the design, with creating my own back stories of the world and characters.....